THE EMPTY GASOLINE DRUM
We used to live in the country,
Near a little down Eastern town;
There were lots of trees in the forest,
And farm lands all around.
I guess we were kind of curious,
My brother and I and a friend;
We decided to check out a gasoline drum,
That was standing there on its end.
The old gas barrel was in the backyard,
Of our neighbor just up the road,
It seemed like a good idea to check it out,
As we were walking to our abode.
I would have been about six or seven,
Our friend and my brother were about nine;
We wanted to take a look in the drum,
As we ventured up close feeling fine.
We all got real close to the barrel,
And tried to see inside,
We couldn’t see much in the little hole,
And needed to have some more light.
So our friend said with a gleam in his eye,
‘I know just what I’ll do;
I’ll light a match over top of the barrel’,
What harm could it possibly do.
So he lit the match and all Hell broke loose,
As the gas fumes exploded in the drum;
And blew the lid off the barrel,
And knocked us all down on our bums.
It was the loudest noise I had ever heard,
And still is to this day;
When that empty gas drum exploded,
And the top end was blown away.
The top of the barrel went flying,
I can still see it in my mind’s eye;
It soared like a flying saucer,
Away up there in the sky.
We all got singed a little bit,
Some a little more than others;
Our friend Jackie lost some of his hair,
A shoe was missing of my brother.
We wanted to check out that barrel,
Inquiring minds want to know;
It seemed like a good idea at the time,
But we didn’t know its top would blow.
It taught us a valuable lesson,
To be careful around gasoline ;
Even though a drum is empty,
Sometimes trouble can’t be seen!
Bob Bartlett,
North Bay
